Europe

Although the Macedonian Grayling is a critically endangered species of butterfly, it is legally available for sale online. The threat not only to this butterfly but to the ecosystem in North Macedonia is growing.

Couldn't find any English source. Main relevance, politically, being that now the Bundestag will have to discuss it, and they will have to vote on it, one way or the other, no more ducking away.

Only the constitutional court can ban parties, and only the Bundestag, Bundesrat, and the government can ask the constitutional court to do so.

Chinese social media giant Bytedance was dealt a stinging blow last September when Ireland’s data privacy watchdog issued it a record $370 million fine over its failure to properly safeguard the personal data of children using its app TikTok. New corporate filings suggest that Bytedance expects more fines like this to come. The company has explicitly set aside $1 billion to cover future fines from European privacy regulators.

Bytedance has faced a barrage of lawsuits and investigations from regulators around the world over TikTok’s addictive design, handling of user data and lack of safeguards for teenage users. Only yesterday, the attorneys general of thirteen states and the District of Columbia filed separate lawsuits claiming that TikTok was designed to be used compulsively and had harmed children and teens as a result.

The $1 billion provision for future fines was revealed in corporate accounts for TikTok’s European operations filed this week with the United Kingdom’s Companies House. The accounts also showed that TikTok’s European revenues surged to $4.57 billion last year, up from $2.6 billion in 2022. Its losses have also nearly tripled to $1.3 billion in 2023, up from $512 million.

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The scale of total fines and penalties facing TikTok on the European continent could be even larger than the $1 billion provision in its 2023 accounts. The European Commission opened an investigation into TikTok under the Digital Services Act (DSA) in February 2024. The European Union can fine companies up to 6% of global revenue for breaches of the DSA, or impose a ban.

Hunagrian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán‘s policies caused an unprecedented brain drain as thousands of Hungarians left the country searching for better jobs and education. At a press conference at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on October 8, Valérie Hayer, President of the Renew group, said Orbán turns Hungarian reality about immigrants upside down because he cannot fix problems at home.

Hayer noted that the number of people leaving Hungary is at a historic point. Last year, over 33,000 Hungarians left their country because of the economic situation.

“This is the highest number since teen years ago,” highlighted Renew’s President.

“They left Hungary not for Russia or China, but for Western Europe,” she emphasised.

Hayer explained this occurred “because Orbán cannot fix problems at home. He can’t find a solution for low wages. To fix bad education or poor job perspectives”.

“Orbán is scaremongering to avoid attention for his failing Home Affairs,” underlined Hayer.

On Thursday, Moldovan authorities conducted a series of high-profile raids targeting leaders of a group associated with fugitive businessman Ilan Shor, as part of a larger criminal investigation into election interference.

The searches come in the lead-up to Moldova’s critical presidential election on October 20th, which will coincide with a referendum on whether to enshrine European Union membership as a strategic objective in the country’s constitution.

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The Moldovan police have accused Ilan Shor and Russia of attempting to interfere with the electoral process, specifically targeting the referendum. Shor, a pro-Russian businessman currently living in exile, was convicted last year for his involvement in a massive financial scandal that saw the theft of $1 billion from Moldovan banks. Despite being convicted in absentia, Shor continues to exert influence over Moldovan politics, largely through his social media presence and connections within Moldova.

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It is within this context that Shor and his associates are accused of trying to disrupt the democratic process. According to Moldovan police, their investigation has revealed a coordinated effort aimed at undermining the referendum through bribery, vote-buying schemes, and financial manipulations. These tactics are reportedly designed to sway public opinion against EU membership and prevent Moldova from solidifying ties with the West.

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Moldova’s upcoming presidential election and EU membership referendum have become focal points for external interference, particularly from actors linked to Russia and Ilan Shor.

• The European Parliament (EP) urges Turkish authorities to drop the charges against Bülent Mumay and all other arbitrarily detained media workers, political opponents, human rights defenders, civil servants and academics. Türkiye deplores "a complex web of legislation that systematically silences and controls journalists, and denounce the new “foreign agent regulation” to be introduced by the end of 2024", the EP says in a statement.

• China must immediately and unconditionally release Ilham Tohti, 2019 Sakharov Prize laureate, and Gulshan Abbas, as well as all those arbitrarily detained in China, MEPs say. They strongly condemn the human rights violations against Uyghurs and people in Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China.

• For Iraq, the EP resolution underlines that new proposed laws do not legally protect women and child victims of domestic violence in the country and deplore the fact that the proposed amendments to the law, if enacted, would lead to an even more radical application of Sharia law.

The resolution urges Iraq to adopt a national action plan to eliminate child marriage, criminalise marital rape, fight domestic violence and strengthen women’s and girls’ rights, in line with the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

A square in the northern German city of Hamburg has been officially inaugurated to commemorate Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered 18 years ago this week.

Located in the district of Eimsbüttel, the square was officially renamed in the presence of friends and relatives of Politkovskaya.

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"This place will remind us that there are people like my mother who are not afraid to swim against the tide and fight for the truth," Politkovskaya's son, Ilya Politkovsky, said at the unveiling in Hamburg.

The square named after his mother is "a symbol that freedom, truth and justice remain fundamental values," he said.

Viktoria Roshchyna, who turned 28 this month, wrote vivid accounts of life in Crimea after Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and areas of eastern Ukraine seized by Russian-funded separatists.

She also documented the nearly three-month defence of the port of Mariupol after Moscow launched its February 2022 full-scale invasion. At least 17 journalists have been killed while reporting on the war, according to international organisations.

Roshchyna was initially held for 10 days in southern Ukraine after the invasion and had embarked on a new trip into occupied regions when she disappeared in August 2023. Russian officials acknowledged last May that she was being held.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/44523440

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/44521474

As part of the budget presented to parliament on Thursday, the centre-right government of prime minister Luís Montenegro is aiming to reduce income tax for young people.

People earning the average salary of just under €20,000 (£16,700) currently pay a 26% rate of tax on the money they earn over about €16,500.

Under the government's plan, those aged 35 and under who earn up to €28,000 (£23,400) would pay nothing at all in tax for the first year. The tax burden would then progressively increase over ten years.

The measures would also apply to foreigners. They are the result of a compromise between Montenegro's Democratic Alliance-led government and the Socialist Party (PS), which originally came up with the proposal earlier this year.

In recent years, foreigners have flocked to Portugal, lured by its affordable rents, mild weather and natural beauty.

In the capital Lisbon and the southern Algarve region, the number of so-called "digital nomads" has shot up. Their high salaries have driven rents up considerably - often pricing out local Portuguese.

Low salaries in Portugal are also an issue. The minimum wage is €870 (£727) and, at €1,640, the average salary is one of the lowest in Europe.

As a result, many young people routinely choose to leave. Around 30% of Portuguese aged between 15 and 39 - about 850,000 people - now live abroad, according to data from the country's Emigration Observatory.

The prime minister has previously promised that his government would "give young people the future they deserve".

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Youth minister Margarida Balseiro Lopes told Portuguese media that while the measure had a high financial cost, "the cost to the country of having the most qualified generation ever, fleeing and leaving and emigrating, is incomparably higher than the financial cost of the measure".

[Edit title for brevity.]

To solve the conflict in Gaza, Israel must be declared a terrorist state, Polish far-right MEP Grzegorz Braun said during a debate in the European Parliament on Monday, marking the first anniversary of the 7 October attacks.

“Israel should be declared and presumed a terrorist state. Mr Netanyahu and his ‘butchers’ are the largest and most criminal terrorist organisation,” said Polish far-right Confederation MEP Grzegorz Braun (Independent).

“To those of you who seem to support the state that is occupying Palestine for so long: Can't you hear the words of Israeli ministers, ambassadors, rabbis referring to Palestinians as animals, as non-humans?” he asked rhetorically, comparing Israeli’s rhetoric to that of SS officers and the Third Reich leaders.

Last year, as a Polish MP, he doused Hanukkah candles in the corridor of the Polish parliament with a fire extinguisher to protest against the celebration of Jewish holidays in the Polish parliament, injuring a participant in the celebration who tried to stop him.

The European Parliament is debating a resolution expressing concern over Georgia’s democratic decline, urging sanctions against oligarch and the ruling party's Georgian Dream 'honorary chairman' Bidzina Ivanishvili, and criticizing recent anti-LGBTQ+ laws.

The resolution also calls for a review of Georgia’s visa-free status with the EU and demands the release of former President Mikheil Saakashvili. Political divisions are deepening as the Georgian government faces growing criticism from both domestic and international fronts.

Archived link

Beginning in early August, Check Point Research observed a cyber-enabled disinformation campaign primarily targeting Moldova’s government and education sectors.

Acting ahead of Moldova’s elections on October 20th, attackers behind this campaign likely seek to foster negative perceptions of European values and the EU membership process in addition to Moldova’s current pro-European leadership, with the intent of influencing the outcome of the upcoming fall elections and national referendum.

Following the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Moldova, a former Soviet republic, was granted EU candidate status in 2022. A nationwide referendum will be held on October 20, 2024, simultaneously with the presidential election, to determine whether the constitution should be amended to reflect the citizens’ desire for EU membership. Incumbent president Maia Sandu is actively campaigning for EU membership.

Check Point Research analyzed the techniques used by the threat actors, whom we track as Lying Pigeon, in their disinformation campaign in Moldova and provide an overview of their different activity clusters in other parts of Europe in the last few years.

Operation MiddleFloor is an ongoing disinformation campaign against Moldovan targets that began in early August. It uses emails as the primary distribution method instead of more common methods such as social networks or fake websites.

• While the campaign disseminates fake emails and documents, it also aims to gather information on the victims’ environments, likely to set the stage for targeted malware attacks.
• The threat actors use spoofed email accounts to disseminate content allegedly originating from European Union institutions, Moldavian ministries, or political figures.
• This campaign exploits multiple sensitive topics and fears related to the current pro-European government and Moldova’s potential EU membership. These include concerns about gas supply and fuel prices ahead of winter, LGBT, potential stringent anti-corruption measures, changes in the education system, immigration from the Middle East, and general labor market shifts across Moldova and EU countries.
• The actors behind this campaign are Russian-speaking and not fully proficient in English. Based on the Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs), targeting, and distributed messages, Lying Pigeon appears to be aligned with Russian interests.
• Check Point Research linked Lying Pigeon to previously unattributed clusters of activity across Europe. Since early 2023, Lying Pigeon activity has been observed in several European locations related to the following themes:

Archived link

EU ambassadors agreed on Wednesday (9 October) to give Ukraine up to 35 billion euros as part of the bloc's share in a larger planned loan from the Group of Seven nations (G7) backed by frozen Russian central bank assets, a statement from the Council of the EU said.

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All of the EU's sanctions on Moscow must be renewed every six months via a unanimous EU vote. But Hungary, with its Russia-friendly stance, has repeatedly tried to block sanctions and measures to help Ukraine, and could halt a renewal.

Hungary - which holds the six-month rotating EU presidency - does not want to discuss any possible extension for the regime holding the assets until after the US election in early November.

The European Commission proposed extending the renewal period from six to 36 months but Hungary did not table the proposal during envoy discussions, EU diplomats said.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/44477622

Prime minister champions migration in stance at odds with European neighbours

From the description:

"Brexit was driven by fears that Eastern European migrants were "taking jobs" and "overburdening public services." Yet, just a few short years after the UK's departure from the European Union, the narrative has drastically changed. Now, business owners are calling for Eastern European workers to return to fill critical labor shortages. So, what went wrong? In this video, we explore the impact of Eastern European migration on the UK economy, the consequences of Brexit, and why the country may have underestimated just how much it needed its migrant workforce. From the failed ‘Pick for Britain’ campaign to labor shortages in agriculture and hospitality, discover how Brexit backfired in ways few expected.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this video is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered professional financial, investment, or legal advice. We shall not be held responsible for any errors or omissions in the content. Any action the viewer takes based on the information provided in this video is solely at their own risk."